Author: Family Friendly Daddy Blog

1 Comment Posted on Nostalgia, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Our 20th High School Class Reunion: Fort Payne Wildcats Class of 1999

 

We have arrived.

In an age of reboots, sequels, and of course, reunions, the timing was perfect for the Fort Payne High School Class of 1999 to have our 20th reunion!

Back in May of 1999, during the week of our high school graduation, we had our class picnic in our city park. Most of us were just 18 years old and didn’t really know, and couldn’t know, what we wanted to do with our lives.

We hadn’t yet figured out what we were really good at, or bad at, or how we would even earn a living.

But during the course of two decades, it sort of forced us to figure out who we were going to be. At now that we are all pushing 40, our lives are, for the most part, figured out.

If graduating high school was like putting the car in reverse, backing it out of the garage, putting it into first, and determining which of the endless roads we were supposed to start driving down…

Then making it to our 20th high school reunion is like having the car in cruise control.

Granted, for most of us, the road we took was not a straight and easy one. That road had many surprising turns. Often that road turned us right back around in the same direction we had already come from.

But by now, we are ultimately settled in for the rest of the ride. We’re not trying to figure out who we are anymore.

We know now.

So for this class reunion in particular, it was especially a milestone. For the first time, we were catching up with the grown up doppelganger versions of each other.

I also realized by attending my 20th high school reunion, that I was fortunate to grow up with a particularly special group of people, at a special time, in a special place.

We were born in 1980 and 1981; during the start of our town’s economic boom, as Fort Payne, Alabama became “The Official Sock Capital of the World”; thanks to our town’s massive hosiery production.

Not to mention, the country group Alabama had just become living legends… and they just happen to be from our little town, located in the tail end of the Appalachian Mountains.

It was magical time and place to grow up. We are a close group of people.

Our class reunions are a really big deal to us and I am confident they always will be.

-Nick Shell

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Dear Holly: You Finally Got Your Elsa Dress!

3 years, 3 months.

Dear Holly,

I guess the question is, how did it take this long for you to get your very own Elsa dress?

Mommy actually got you one last Christmas, but it fit really weird.

But thanks to Target, this past weekend we found one for only $20.

Obviously, you are very proud!

You not only have a ball coming up at your preschool where all the girls will be wearing fancy dresses, but Halloween is also coming up in a few months.

But even aside from that, in the meantime, you get to wear it around the our house… though you have to take it off before dinner each night.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: These are the Days of Halo Action Figures and Beyblades

8 years, 8 months.

Dear Jack,

These letters I write to you often serve as a bookmark to show you whatever you were into at that point in your life.

Therefore, I can positively tell you that these days, it’s Halo action figures and Beyblades that you’re into.

I have a rule that when you come home each day, you need to immediately find something to eat and find an activity to keep you occupied.

Here lately, you have spent much of your “during dinner prep” time has been carefully organizing your Halo action figures and ranking your Beyblades.

It seems like work to me. But to an 8 year-old boy, that translates as fun!

Love,

Daddy

1 Comment Posted on car reviews, Uncategorized

How to Fix a Jeep Wrangler JK 6-Speed That Pops Out of Gear with a B&M 45195 Shifter Lever Kit: Plus, a 7 Hour Off-Road Test Drive Little River Canyon National Reserve!

You no longer have to worry about or wonder why your Jeep Wrangler JK 6 Speed randomly pops out of gear for no reason! And no, it’s not you.

It’s not that you’re accidentally not forcing the shifter all the way into 1st gear. And no, it doesn’t pop out of gear every day.

In fact, I handed over to the keys to my 2010 Jeep Wrangler JK to a local transmission shop, but after a week of the shop owner driving it on a daily basis, he handed the keys back: “I couldn’t find anything wrong with your Jeep.”

Fortunately, I have the answer you have been looking for! I will save you thousands of dollars, and, I will save your from cringing in anticipation every time you shift into first gear, doubting yourself as you wonder if the shifter will pop out of 1st before you can get it into 2nd.

Instead of rebuilding or replacing the transmission, the first (and likely last) place to start is buy purchasing and installing a B&M Precision Sport Shifter (45195), which fits the 2007-2018 Jeep Wrangler JK.

It will cost you a little over $500, plus hiring a mechanic who can install it for you; about 3 hours worth of labor.

It’s this simple: Chrysler didn’t make a strong enough shifter for the Jeep Wrangler JK.

Therefore, it’s pretty common for them to pop of out of 1st gear and to not always go into reverse.

I admit- I questioned whether this new upgrade would actually solve such a seemingly serious and potentially expense issue.

Therefore, after my dad spent about 3 hours installing the B&M Precision Sport Shifter (45195), I took him and my mom on a trial by fire, off-road test drive. Just a few miles down the road from my parents’ house where I grew up on Lookout Mountain in Fort Payne, Alabama, there is a series of dirt roads that are part of the Little River Canyon National Reserve.

The main path is simply called 05; which extends from one end of the trail to the other. At certain points, you can cross Little River to get to another road like 02 or 04.

Keeping my 2010 Jeep Wrangler JK in 4 wheel drive, it was just no issue driving through giant mud puddles that stretched from one side of the road to the other; nor was it any struggle to cross the river itself.

We were gone from 10 AM until 6 PM, only stopping for one hour for lunch at Wildflower Cafe in Mentone, Alabama.

And during that solid 7 hour test drive, not once did it ever pop out of gear!

Not only that, my Jeep simply drives better since the upgrade. It’s as if the beast now has a new master!

Since the big test drive, I have also driven it 3 hours back to my home near Nashville, Tennessee; as well as to work and back a couple of days now.

It just doesn’t pop out of gear anymore. Not once. Problem solved.

I highly recommend the B&M Precision Sport Shifter (45195). Tell ’em I sent ya!

-Nick Shell

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Dear Jack: What I Was Doing When I Was Your Age, 30 Years Ago, Back in the Summer of 1989

8 years, 7 months.

Dear Jack,

For every year older you get, it seems that much closer to my memories of my old childhood; since my memories are that much more elaborate the older I was.

So for me, it’s pretty easy to think back 30 years ago to the summer of 1989.

I remember I attended baseball camp. The main thing I remember is that Jonathan Shugart got hit in the head with a baseball.

I remember that was the summer that our town got a Taco Bell; because I went there for the first time in my life, after baseball camp; during the first week it opened.

And I definitely remember our whole family going to see the original Batman movie in the theater.

I remember that I was excited about starting 3rd grade, because it would be at a new school, where you were able to pick juice instead of just milk.

You’re going to have a great school year. I can tell you from experience.

I also can tell you that you won’t forget this summer, just as I didn’t forget my summer preceding 3rd grade. I’m sure getting the Jeep will help ensure that!

Love,

Daddy